Just another WordPress.com site

March 7, 2014

it took about 20 minutes after i posted that picture of new cat before Kristy called me to ‘catch up’. which is cover for ‘tell me about the cat’. barb replied with “I bet mats is thinking who are these crazy people who keep bringing in more and more cats?’ or maybe I’m just projecting.”

okay, i hear ya. impulse-adopting a cat is looked down on. you all think im crazy. (or two of you do anyway) i did notice that it was cheaper to adopt a cat than it was to buy a parrot. and its almost as cheap as buying a skinny pig ($84 for a skinny. $100 for the cat. $590 for the parrot, and he’s on sale) i know that prices are sometimes used to make people consider their animal fully. a hamster at $14 is an easy impulse and they are small and nobody really gives a shit about who buys them. a budgie is about $25, same deal. easy to breed, easy to replace, the store is chock full of them. those are impulse buys. and in the case of cats, they keep the price low so that they are accessible to people – they want to cats to be adopted for a different reason that sheer profit. you need to pay them in cash and you fill out forms from the agency, so i have a feeling that profit doesn’t really come into it. and THANK GOD they don’t deal with puppy and kitten mills.

i don’t have to justify why i got this cat, but I’m going to share it with you anyway. we had three, we lost one, he’s not coming back, we had a space. I feel like as a human, you have a responsibility to take in at least one animal at some point in your life, since its a human-caused overpopulation issue anyway. and to take the stress off of those shelters and rescues. there are so many adoptable animals out there, and so many unadoptable animals as well. adoptable ones need to be adopted so theres room for the unadopatable. Craigslist is full of cats and dogs who people got bored with, or couldn’t bother to put the effort in. this cat was surrendered by her family, and shes only a year old. she wasn’t fixed when she came in. shes got long legs and shes got some filling out to do, shes not even done growing. but somebody changed their mind about her and decided they were done with her.

we have lost two cats now to the outside world. probably both to cars. its making me re-think letting them out. but at the same time, they are just cats. we have them in our homes in a sort of contract – what i get out of the relationship is a bond with an animal, companionship, entertainment, and what they get out of it is regular food, a secure home, a safe place to live with people who dont mistreat them (with the occasional assault by a baby) and also some companionship. i enjoy having cats around, i am glad that we can offer three of them a safe home and regular food and a good place to live, but I’m not so attached to them that i need to mourn for three years every time we loose one.

they gave me a ‘congratulations on your adoption, thanks for saving a life package’ i didn’t ‘save a life’. the next person who walked in there would have taken her. its not like she was on death row. shes a perfect companion, she would have gone to a different home had we not picked her up yesterday afternoon. I asked the woman who runs the clinic and she says that the average turnover time is about 2-5 days for the cats. kittens go like hotcakes, older cats take longer, but nobody is ever there for longer than a week, ever. usually they aren’t there for longer than 48 hours. she says that they have adoption days for dogs, and they bring in a truckload of dogs for an afternoon and they are all gone within hours. amazing. it has really made an impact to have shelters come into pet stores. the sort of people who have pets or want pets go to the pet store, not downtown to the shelter. bring the animals to the lazy humans, and the animals will find homes. its a good system. they even come pre-spayed or neutered so that you can’t continue the cycle.

i dont know, I’m not sure exactly what my point is, or maybe I dont have one. Just that its okay to have three cats and you’re not crazy. and its okay to adopt one on the fly if you are a responsible person who knows how to own cats. and that its a social responsibility to take in an animal if you have the space and can share your home with one. treat them well, be nice, take good care of them, and for gods sake spay and neuter.

some names that the girls have suggested:
pussy cat
cute kitty
kitty cute
new cat
new cute kitty cat
and, weirdly, “people are food”. thank coco for that one.

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

Related

2 Responses to “”

“I feel like as a human, you have a responsibility to take in at least one animal at some point in your life, since its a human-caused overpopulation issue anyway. and to take the stress off of those shelters and rescues.” worddd! same here. i wish I had the money and some roots to keep a bird and train it to fly free in the safe places and garden but that’s just because I adore how they ruffle their feathers and how they blink their eyes.

Heyah Kyla, it’s me joce (seventh_stage – haulm)! At unplanned moments while waiting for the métro or the looking out the bus window after a shift of night janitorial work a thought would float by, “Hmm however in the world is that prodigious ladyperson Kyla? wherever is her life going these days I hope it’s good; she was stellar and such an encouragement, and I should get back in touch somehow (and meta thought, online journalism, too)”.
I am uberrrr glad you are still springing around on here!! ((: Looking forward to reading your lovely and honest posts again! For me, adult life in montréal has it’s ebbs and flows for sure, maybe I will start paddling with some new posts about times here– living without internet sucks for too many reasons. I hope this finds you well, and the other peoples too of course, and “people are food” too. My vote to cast in would be bróma haha just jokin'(:

you could foster an animal for short-term, talk to local shelters. they always need homes to stick their foster animals in.

kitten got named twiggy because she is long and skinny and has knee-high retro boots. she is very much still a kitten in her behaviour, i think she might be younger than the shelter guessed. shes not shy at all and has made friends easily with mats, but bindi isn’t talking to us yet.